Industry
leaders
discuss
Management
Engineering
at
Waterloo
Kevin M. Murai President and Chief Operating Officer Ingram Micro Inc.
The Canadian and U.S. markets continue to evolve. As the world moves toward a more global market, the supply chain has become a strategic part of today's businesses. With fewer products being made in the same country in which they are distributed, a well-managed supply chain is critical to a company's success. Information technology is a primary enabler of a supply chain strategy. It facilitates the effective flow of data, resources and products. Information technology is what keeps a company competitive. It can be a key differentiator. Management Engineering - contemporary Industrial engineering - is vital to today's global economy. It enables a company to evolve beyond simply operating within four walls to reaching up and down the entire supply chain, and being more competitive in new geographies and markets. The University of Waterloo has an outstanding reputation among the world's premier engineers. With its world-class program and instructors, I believe graduates of UW's new Management Engineering program will have a competitive edge over others addressing the global supply chain.
About Kevin
Kevin has spent the last 21 years in IT distribution, with past global management responsibilities that include information technology, distribution and logistics and customer relationships. Kevin currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of SYNNEX Corporation. Prior to SYNNEX, Kevin was President and Chief Operating Officer of Ingram Micro. During his nineteen-year tenure at Ingram Micro, he held a series of senior management positions in all aspects of the Company's operations. Kevin holds a bachelor's degree in applied science in electrical engineering with the Management Sciences option from the University of Waterloo, and is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council.
Steve Radewych Vice President, Supply Chain Management, Americas Operations Celestica Steve's Comments about Management Engineering
The recent Faculty of Engineering decision to offer a Management Engineering program will certainly be valued within the high technology manufacturing and services sector. As our industry values technical knowledge and expertise as much as a solid business management foundation, individuals graduating with a Management Engineering degree will have a competitive edge in not only landing career opportunities in industry, but certainly the ability to take on broader roles and responsibilities once employed. In the growing globalization of manufacturing and the increasing complexity of supply chain networks, the content of the program provides much sought after knowledge/skills today, and it will grow in relevance in the years ahead.
About Steve
Steve joined Celestica upon its formation in early 1994, after having completed a BaSc. in industrial engineering at Ryerson and then a MaSc in Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo He has spent over a decade within Celestica's Supply Chain Management organization. His responsibilities have grown to span SCM at manufacturing sites through to direct customer engagement in global customer account teams. He is accountable for demand management, continuity of supply, inventory management, and a variety of supply chain improvement initiatives across the Americas region. This involves routine engagement with customers and suppliers on both tactical and strategic levels. In his present role as VP SCM Americas Operations, Steve is responsible for managing over 750 supply chain professionals in Celestica's sites in Canada, US, Mexico, and Brazil.
Dwyne Rhodes
Patrick Site
Director
Outsourcing
Services
McKesson
Provider
Technologies
Director
of
Information
Technologies
Grand
River
Hospital
I have worked since 1979 as a Management Engineer in a healthcare setting. This background has given me knowledge and insight that has permitted me to move into senior roles managing technology in all segments of the enterprise. It provides the opportunity to gain a "bird's eye view" of the enterprise at a surprising level of intimacy about individual operating departments and their interconnections and dependencies. In each of these healthcare enterprises I was involved in the analysis of workflow and the analysis of the impact of technology on workflow. Implementations of clinical documentation systems, automated laboratory systems, statistic based productivity measurement and patient acuity based productivity systems are part of what I was involved in. We both analyzed and simulated human and system flow to minimize costs and maximize throughput in various clinical and clerical settings within the health system. The importance of Management Engineering (as it is commonly called in the US Healthcare System rather than Industrial Engineering) is in the rational maximization of constrained resources. In Canada, with a publicly funded health care system, the constraint on resources is significantly more intense then it is in the US system. This drives an even stronger need for \"engineered solutions\" and analytic reasoning about work, workflows and system utilization to maximize the use of each public dollar providing health care. The management engineer needs a blend of analytic skills and observational skills that are unique in engineering. The root of much of what they do is observation of people at work and the analytic understanding of how that work can be simplified and made more efficient. It is the most human of the engineering disciplines, dealing as it most often does with the intimate details of the work lives of other individuals in the enterprise.
About Dwyne
Dwyne has worked as a Management Engineer since 1979, starting at the University of San Diego Hospital in San Diego California where he was involved in a range of projects involving the implementation of new technologies in various departments. His mandate was to leverage emerging technologies to enhance the operation of departments by lowering cost, increasing efficiency and improving quality. He then moved to St. John's Hospital and Health Centre in Santa Monica California. There, he functioned with a similar mandate to utilize technology to improve efficiency and to support the implementation of computerized systems by analysis and design of human and system workflow. From 1984, he was the Director of Management Engineering at Forbes Health System in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, managing a department of 6 management engineers (with degrees in industrial engineering). His is currently the Director of Information Technologies at the Grand River Hospital, in Kitchener, Ontario.